Marking hammer

ABSTRACT

THIS INVENTION RELATES TO A MARKING HAMMER USED TO BRAND LOGS AT THEIR ENDS BY MAKING AN INTAGLIO RECESS TO INDICATE OWNERSHIP AND WHERE THEY WERE CUT. TREES ARE FREQUENTLY FELLED IN DIFFICULT TERRITORY IN WHICH TO SWING A HAMMER. THIS HAMMER HAS SUFFICIENT MASS AND ARTICULATION TO ENSURE THAT THE STENCIL ON THE HAMMERHEAD WILL TILT AND INDENT SQUARELY ON THE END OF A LOG. THE POINT OF ARTICULATION IS PROTECTED BY A RESILIENT AND ELASTIC SHEATHING THAT HOLDS THE HAMMERHEAD SQUARE TO THE WORK WHEN IT IS SWUNG BUT PERMITS IT TO CANT IF THE BLOW IS NOT MADE TRULLY NORMAL TO THE LOG END.

' J. L. GOULD MARKING HAMMER Nov. 16, 1971 Filed July 24, 1969 James L. Gould INVENTOR United States Patent 3,620,159 MARKING HAMMER James L. Gould, Rte. 2, Box 566, Tillamook, Oreg. 97141 Filed July 24, 1969, Ser. No. 844,511 Int. Cl. B44b /02 US. Cl. 101-28 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to a marking hammer used to brand logs at their ends by making an intaglio recess to indicate ownership and where they were cut. Trees are frequently felled in diflicult territory in which to swing a hammer. This hammer has suflicient mass and articulation to ensure that the stencil on the hammerhead will tilt and indent squarely on the end of a log. The point of articulation is protected by a resilient and elastic sheathing that holds the hammerhead square to the work when it is swung but permits it to cant if the blow is not made trully normal to the log end.

This invention relates to a marking hammer used to indicate ownership of logs and where they were cut. In many cases, logs are co-mingled and unless they are permanently branded, they will lose their identity.

The standard manner of marking logs is to use an indenting die to make an intaglio recess on the ends of the logs. Logs to be branded sometimes lie in diflicult territory and the hammer carrying the stencil die must be swung so that it will make a clear and uniform impression in the end of a log, suflicient to identify the ownership of logs after they have been gathered together, trucked, dumped and sorted. A hammer blow must be made with an instrument that has sufficient mass that it will indent the mark uniformly into the end of the log. Several types of hammers have been devised comprising two Parts, one a hammer and the other a marking die joined together by a ball-and-socket joint and held alined by an annular coiled spring. Such construction is open to the weather and foreign materials become lodged between the hammer and the marking die so that the articulation provided by this construction is restricted.

I have conceived a marking hammer comprising a head and a marking die that are joined together by a ball-andsocket joint and are preferably sheathed by a rubber cup or tube that is both flexible and elastic. The flexibility permits the plane of the marking hammer to accommodate itself to a blow not projected exactly normal to the end surface to be marked and held when not under stress in alignement with each other. Said cup has a peripheral skirt that lies between the back edge of the marking die and the forward edge of the hammer head so that these parts are in stacked relation with each other. The cup provides a smooth peripheral sheathing surface for said parts and protects the ball-and-socket connection against mechanical damage or functional imperfection resulting from rust or the lodging of foreign matter on the bearing surfaces.

The details of my invention and the mode of operation thereof are hereinafter described in greater detail in connection with the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevation of a marking hammer carried by a handle which is shown foreshortened;

FIG. 2 is a similar view of a marking hammer with one portion shown broken off and with the marking die making a substantial oblique angle when the hammer blow is canted; and

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 33 in FIG. 1 through the hammer head, the marking plate through the ball-and-socket joinder element for said parts,

3,620,159 Patented Nov. 16, 1971 and through the elastic cup for sheathing said parts by permitting them to swing to the angle shown in FIG. 2, in case of misalinement during the swing of the hammer.

A marking hammer embodying my invention comprises a marking hammer having an elongated head 1 with an eye 2 piercing the head intermediate its ends to receive a handle 3. One end is the striking end, such as the right hand end in FIG. 1. The other end is provided with a cutting blade 4, helpful if it is necessary to cut away limbs or brush in order to swing the marking hammer in the woods. The right hand end terminates in a flat face 5, having a stemmed ball 6 projecting laterally from said flat face, as is shown in FIG. 3. That is to say, the ball is provided with a neck 7 of smaller diameter joining it to the larger head. This is shown as an integral structure in FIG. 3. I deem it desirable that these parts be formed integrally because forces of such amplitude are exerted as to break a thin section if the head is not struck exactly normal to the surface to be branded. It may be that it is desirable to replace the stemmed ball if it becomes broken or if it is desired to put on a different marking die. In that case, the stemmed ball and the flat face would be joined by a threaded connection (not shown), for example. A marking die or plate element 8 provided with a socket 9 is joined to the stemmed ball of the head, as is illustrated in FIG. 3. It is preferable that the Walls of the socket be rolled or otherwise forced inwardly above the center of mass of said ball so that the parts will not inadvertently become detached.

The formation of the margin 9a of the socket may be accomplished by a rolling action or by hammering them inwardly around the ball. The marking die or plate, on its face opposed to that upon which the socket 9 is formed, has a cutting die 10 formed thereon. The cutting die cuts a design, name, letter or other indicia into the end of the log under the force of the hammer and usually terminates in a sharpened edge so that it will enter the end grain of the wood cleanly and to its full depth. After the parts are thus assembled, an elastic cup 11 is Wound about th peripheral surface of the socket, and the stemmed ball that is operatively joined therewith, and is compressed between the flat face of the elongated head and the opposed face of the marking die or plate so that tension is developed in the skirt portion 12 of the cup and this tension produces a constricting effect about the ball-and-socket joint and a reaction force against the opposed faces of the head and the marking die. The cup thus formed has sufficient compressive strength to maintain the opposed faces of hammer head and the marking die or plate in substantial parallelism when the parts are at rest, but have suificient yield to permit the parts to rotate through a substantial angle a, as is illustrated in FIG. 2. An angle of 15 to 20 is usually suflicient to accommodate blows that are not truly normal to the surface being marked. I have observed blows that are 30 from normal, accommodated by said cup and the ball-and-socket housed therein, so that a clean indentation of uniform depth is produced.

The distance 11a from the upper edge of the socket, as viewed in FIG. 3, usually is greater than the thickness of the peripheral skirt of the elastic cup, to promote articulation. Actually, the ball fits tightly in the socket and a blow struck by the hammer head is transmitted through the ball into the skirt and through the die plate to the cutting die in steel-to-steel contact. That is to say, no substantial portion of the hammer blow is absorbed by the bottom portion 11a of the elastic cup when the blow is delivered fairly against the workpiece. The depth of the walls of the skirt portion is such that the parts tend to aline themselves, as is shown in FIG. 3. If a blow is struck as illustrated in FIG. 2, the upper edge bulges out substantially and the under edge flattens from its rounded curvature shown in FIG. 1, as the ball rotates in the socket. At rest, the skirt portion is under compression and it has sufiicient stiffness so that the parts are held in parallelism, as is illustrated in FIG. 3.

As has been commented upon, the hammer head illustrated in the drawings, defines a compound tool on the right-hand side, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. There is a marking die joined with the striking head. On the lefthand side is an axe blade. This is illustrative of one type of compound tool which has been quite convenient in the woods.

Other types of compound tools could be one with a picaroon or a punch, opposed to the marking hammer or a tool might be provided with a double brand arrangement that is with different marking dies on the two ends thereof. I have found that making the cup of wound rubber tape provides a more satisfactory tool than using a preformed cup. If a preformed cup is used, the balland-socket must be detachably secured to the heads that carry them. At least the ball must be detachable and if it is desirable to separate the ball from its socket, the latter must have some removable type of retainer ring which enables the parts to be separated for repair or replacement and initially for the installation of the balland-socket elements within the elastic cup. All are joined between the flange or plate of the hammer head and the plate of the die. These structures are not illustrated because they are readily appreciated and constructed by a person skilled in the art, and form no part of my invention.

I claim:

1. A marking hammer, comprising an elongated head, having an eye formed therein to receive a handle, having a first end and a second end lying at opposite sides of said eye,

the first end terminating in a fiat face having a ball fitting projecting centrally of said fiat face and arranged as an axial projection of the longitudinal center line of said head,

said ball having a neck portion of smaller cross-sectional area than that of the ball, and joining the ball centrally to the flat face of said first end of the hammer head,

a flat marking plate having a first face and a second face,

said first face of the marking plate having laterally projecting indenting cutting die faces formed thereon,

said second face having an axially centered open-ended socket projecting laterally from said second face of the marking plate, said socket being of substantially lesser compass than said second face of the marking plate,

said socket defining a mating chamber into which said ball fits, accommodating rotation and articulation therein,

an elastic cup having a skirt encircling the exterior surfaces of said ball and said socket, sealing the pposed faces of the face of said first end of the hammer head and that portion of the second face of the marking plate extending laterally beyond the socket member,

said elastic cup at rest having a smaller interior dimension than the peripheral surface of the socket, thereby to exercise a constrictive effect on the latter,

said skirt having sufiicient inherent compressive strength to maintain the opposed faces of the hammer and the marking plate in substantial parallelism when at rest, but sufficient yield to accommodate substantial angular movement under stress without disturbing the close interfit of the ball-and-socket joint.

2. The marking hammer defined in claim 1, including said socket having an inturned marginal portion restricting longitudinal retraction of the ball from said socket.

3. The marking hammer defined in claim 1, including said socket having an inturned marginal portion inhibiting longitudinal retraction of the ball from said socket, and the peripheral skirt of the elastic cup being imperforate to constitute a sheathing for the interfitted balland-socket.

4. A marking hammer, comprising an elongated body element and a cooperating striking head element joined to accommodate swivelling movement with respect to said head element,

said elements being in spaced, stacked arrangement and having flat opposed surface portions facing each other,

a socket member on one element and a ball member, having a mounting neck, interfitting one with the other between said two elements,

said ball-and-socket member being jointed to prevent longitudinal play but accommodating rotation and angular relative axial articulation one with the other,

a cup-shaped elastic sheathing member fitting tightly between the opposed flat faces of the body element and the striking head element and tightly encompassing said ball-and-socket members.

5. The marking hammer defined in claim 4, wherein said elastic sheathing member includes an imperforate peripheral skirt portion.

6. The marking hammer defined in claim 4, wherein said peripheral skirt portion has sufficient compressive strength to hold said fiat faces of the body element and the striking element in substantial parallelism when the hammer is at rest, and sufficient yield to accommodate substantial angular movement when the hammer is in use.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,727,915 9/1929 Thomson 29 2,981,177 4/1961 McRae 10128 3,063,364 11/1962 Kahlen 14529 X ROBERT C. RIORDON, Primary Examiner M. KOCZO, JR., Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 14529 R 

